Saturday, October 2, 2010

State Employment Greed

How excited is everyone else to see Gordon Gekko back on the big screen?Nothing nails home the status of America more than when he opens his mouth and utters the words greed.Ladies and gentlemen, I do not care what Mr. Gekko says, greed is not good, it is destructive.When you look around your town, state or country and begin to complain, remember greed is what brought us here.Now it has brought that oh so precious false sense of entitlement to a new level.Although I could tell you infinite amount of stories to nail this point home, I am going to focus on just one.If you want to make a great living, become state employed.The State of Illinois pays better than other states, just look at our neighboring states.It also blows the private sector away.This is because Chicago sets the standards for all state employees on what is a decent wage.But I don’t want to focus on the wages earned.I want to focus on the pension taken.A lot of state employees have become scared because Senator Bill Brady, running for Governor, wants to change the pension system.Not for current employees, but for future ones.No longer will they become part of the broken pension system, but a 401k program instead.The reasoning is simple; the state can no longer afford to keep sliding in the hole like it is in the pension program.State employees do not realize that every time they get paid, and the money they put into the pension program disappears instantly, because the pension system lacks the funding to survive.It keeps getting stolen to pay for other things.I have asked these state employees that complain, “What is wrong with a 401k?It works fine for the private sector.”I can never get an answer.The bottom line is that state employees feel that the taxpayers should pay them for the rest of their lives for their service.It wasn’t until recently that Correctional Officers were force to pay a percentage of their wages into the pension system, meaning they were setting up a retirement for free.What makes state employees think they are above the rest of the taxpayers?In a time when the state is one of the poorest in the nation, concessions need to be made.State employees, especially unionized ones refuse to sacrifice anything to help repair the damage of over a decade of mismanagement.As much as you’re being paid, you can be like the rest of us, and use a 401k to save up for retirement.You are entitled to nothing.Your greed is out of control.